A few days after the funeral for NYPD officer Rafael Ramos, one of two slain police officers whose deaths have sparked a rift between the police and the mayor in the city, reports are claiming the NYPD have virtually stopped working.
According to the New York Post, traffic tickets and minor offense summonses have dropped in the city by about 94 percent since the funeral. Some officers are saying they feel betrayed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and fear for their safety while on the job.
The overall arrest rate has dropped by about 66 percent throughout the city, and officers are only making arrests “when they have to.”
One source told the New York Magazine, “This is not a slowdown for slowdown’s sake. Cops are concerned, after the reaction from City Hall on the Garner case, about de Blasio not backing them.”
As of right now, according to CBS New York, the slowdown of work is not an intentional or coordinated plan. Rather the drop in arrests is being attributed to the number of officers who are still grieving after the lose of both Officer Ramos and Liu, as well as officers being on edge after their shooting deaths.
The stoppage comes as de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton are scheduled to hold an “emergency summit” with the leaders of five different police unions in the area.
One tweet from the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association read, before it was deleted, the mayor needs to “humble himself” as well as “change his philosophical views on policing,” in order to deal with the new protests and manner in which they are handled by the police in the city.
